16 mars 2014

Rawlings condemns double standards of developed countries

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has condemned what he terms the double standards of the developed countries.

“If the developed countries applied the same level of integrity in their dealings with the developing world, their leadership would not be in question,” he said.

According to him, while the developed countries have kept their morals and value systems intact within their nations, those countries adopted different morals towards developing nations, resulting in the developing countries becoming weaker and weaker.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, President Rawlings recalled what former US Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney, said while he was a Defence Minister that: “America's interest overrides issues of morality.”

President Rawlings said: “The developing world is getting weaker and weaker; of course, you will see a growing infrastructure in Tunisia, Egypt or possibly Libya, but those infrastructures will not be a reflection of the socio-economic justice in the country. On the contrary, they reflect a very corrupt class attempting to rule a discontented and disempowered people,” he said, adding that it appeared the developed countries seemed to profit from the demise of the value systems of the developing countries.

He said Western powers had often interfered, entered and declared war on other countries and left some of them as failed states.

He said the world, particularly the developing nations, wanted to see multiparty democracy at the super-power level.

President Rawlings said following the collapse of the bipolar leadership, and the communist and socialist economic philosophy, the world, especially those in the developing regions, had hoped to see the human face of capitalism “but no, we've ended up with what Pope John Paul appropriately called ‘the savagery of capitalism.’”

According to him, nepotism was at its worst and multiparty democracy had failed to contain corruption, and socio-economic injustice was at its worst.

He said when the West declared war against terrorism, most governments or a few too many governments took the cue from the US and Britain and started persecuting and silencing genuine quests by freedom and justice advocates.

“The manner in which the war in Iraq was prosecuted did the worst damage to human morality or ethics, in the sense that the might of right was subsumed by the right of might. It sent the wrong message to the developing world and a few too many governments (especially in Africa) took advantage of that, and corruption and impunity became the order of the day,” he lamented.